Moerdertaktiken
Well-Known Member
Hello all!
I was catching up on some reading the other day and came across this paragraph in a book called "Brewery Operations Manual" by Tom Hennessy:
"In theory, and in practice for some breweries, yeast only needs to be purchased once. If it is managed well, it can be regenerated forever. However, most breweries will buy yeast and use it for a specific amount of time, then purchase new yeast."
Now I've been homebrewing for years now, and I've always read that a batch of yeast can only be regenerated 6-7 times before the yeast is no longer viable. Is this correct? How do breweries manage their yeast, and more importantly, how do they maintain their "House" strain? I must be missing something here, and sorry if this is a stupid thread with an easy one-liner answer. I've re-utilized a certain strain in multiple batches before, but have never gone beyond 5 generations.
I was catching up on some reading the other day and came across this paragraph in a book called "Brewery Operations Manual" by Tom Hennessy:
"In theory, and in practice for some breweries, yeast only needs to be purchased once. If it is managed well, it can be regenerated forever. However, most breweries will buy yeast and use it for a specific amount of time, then purchase new yeast."
Now I've been homebrewing for years now, and I've always read that a batch of yeast can only be regenerated 6-7 times before the yeast is no longer viable. Is this correct? How do breweries manage their yeast, and more importantly, how do they maintain their "House" strain? I must be missing something here, and sorry if this is a stupid thread with an easy one-liner answer. I've re-utilized a certain strain in multiple batches before, but have never gone beyond 5 generations.